Biden Admin Cooks Up New Rules For Employers To Address Heat As Workplace Hazard

The Biden administration proposed regulations that would require employers to take measures to protect their employees from the heat on Tuesday. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed rules…

Nick Pope·Jul 2, 2024·3 min read

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The Biden administration proposed regulations that would require employers to take measures to protect their employees from the heat on Tuesday.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed rules designed to provide millions of outdoor workers, like agricultural and construction laborers, and indoor workers like kitchen cooks relief from “extreme heat” while at work. The proposal would require relevant employers to implement injury and illness prevention plans, as well as mandate water breaks, rest periods and indoor temperature control when the heat index exceeds 80 degrees, among other things, according to OSHA.

“Workers all over the country are passing out, suffering heat stroke and dying from heat exposure from just doing their jobs, and something must be done to protect them,” Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Douglas Parker said of the proposal. “Today’s proposal is an important next step in the process to receive public input to craft a ‘win-win’ final rule that protects workers while being practical and workable for employers.”

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Under the proposal, covered employers would also have to give training, have policies in place to guide the response to an employee that is showing signs of distress from heat, as well as take immediate steps to assist employees who may be experiencing a heat-related health emergency, according to OSHA.

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The rule will now be subject to a public comment period before regulators move to lock in the final version, according to OSHA. “In the interim, OSHA continues to direct significant existing outreach and enforcement resources to educate employers and workers and hold businesses accountable” for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the agency said.

President Joe Biden delivered remarks on the proposed rules on Tuesday at Washington, D.C.’s emergency operations center, during which he promoted the proposal’s projected impacts for workers and criticized Republicans for not caring enough about climate change.

A total of 986 workers across all industries in the U.S. are on record as being heat-related deaths at the workplace between 1992 and 2022, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On average, this indicates that extreme heat kills about 33 people per year in the U.S.; for comparison, an average of about 25 people died because of lightning strikes in the U.S. each year between 2006 and 2023, according to the National Lightning Safety Council, which draws on federal data to source its database.

Notably, a study published in Lancet Planet Health last year found that cold weather was responsible for approximately ten times as many excess deaths as heat did across more than 850 European cities between 2000 and 2019. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), meanwhile, asserts that “heat waves kill more people in the United States than all of the other weather-related disasters combined.”

OSHA did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Featured image credit: (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

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Biden Admin Cooks Up New Rules For Employers To Address Heat As Workplace Hazard — IJR